{"id":6357,"date":"2016-08-01T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=6357"},"modified":"2019-07-20T22:32:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T03:32:18","slug":"is-voting-for-trump-a-morally-good-choice-responding-to-wayne-grudem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=6357","title":{"rendered":"IS VOTING FOR TRUMP A \u201cMORALLY GOOD CHOICE\u201d? RESPONDING TO WAYNE GRUDEM"},"content":{"rendered":"

A personal word is in order. Wayne Grudem was the faculty adviser for both my wife and me during our time at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). Wayne was also the first reader on my thesis and a great encouragement during my two years at TEDS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My friend, Paul, sent me Wayne\u2019s piece, \u201cWhy Voting for Donald Trump is a Morally Good Choice.\u201d (http:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/waynegrudem\/2016\/07\/28\/why-voting-for-donald-trump-is-a-morally-good-choice-n2199564).<\/a> Wayne\u2019s article is rather long, but there are a few points that warrant a friendly challenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among others, John Mark Reynolds and Matthew Boedy have weighed in on a variety of issues (http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/<\/a> and http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/warrenthrockmorton\/2016\/07\/30\/the-rhetorical-maneuvers-of-wayne-grudem-a-guest-post-from-matthew-boedy\/?ref_widget=trending&ref_blog=eidos&ref_post=a-good-man-justifies-a-wicked-deed-grudem-on-trump).<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my own post I want to address a few biblical <\/em>matters that impinge directly on whether someone is in fact making a wise decision by voting for Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure that Wayne using \u201cflaws\u201d to describe Trump\u2019s character is the best word to use. At the very least the connotations of \u201cflaws\u201d as a slight offense or peccadillo seems not strong enough to fit Trump\u2019s overall character. Well-intentioned people can disagree on this one, so I am fine moving on to other matters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along with many others, Wayne writes, \u201cHe has raised remarkable children.\u201d It is easy to see why so many say this sort of thing, but what are we in fact saying? Do we think Trump and Trump alone is responsible for how his children turned out? Furthermore, aren\u2019t we assuming that what we observe about the Trump children in public (respect for their dad, well-spoken, hard-working, etc.) is the totality of their character? What do we really know about Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, and Barron? Precious little, I would argue. They might be people of substance and consistent character, but our quickness in being impressed is misplaced.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is another problem that arises from drawing a straight line from how good a parent must be by the ways their children turned out. Think of King Josiah. He had a bad grandfather (Manasseh) and not much better father (Amon). Then Josiah, a righteous king of note, had some notorious sons, especially Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. And don\u2019t forget the models of Eli and Samuel with their own sons.\u00a0\u00a0 The Scriptures should humble those of us whose children turn out and encourage those of us whose children may be wayward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moving on, Wayne left out the most egregious thing about Trump: his claim of not needing to ask God for forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately, Wayne did not compare Trump to King David, as Jerry Falwell Jr. did. Unlike Trump, King David understood both the consequences of his sin (Ps. 32) and the need to seek God\u2019s forgiveness (Ps. 51).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in his piece, Wayne makes a point by retrieving a verse from the book of Jeremiah:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Therefore I take seriously the prophet Jeremiah\u2019s exhortation to the Jewish people living in exile in Babylon: ‘Seek the welfare of the city<\/em> where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.’ (Jeremiah 29:7)\u00a0 By way of modern application, I think Christians today have a similar obligation to vote in such a way that will ‘seek the welfare’ of the United States. Therefore the one overriding question to ask is this: Which vote is most likely to bring the best results for the nation?” <\/em>(Emphasis his)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a bit leery with the analogy Wayne employs here. First, some context to Jer. 29:7 is in order. Jeremiah had been telling Judah to stop resisting the noxious idea of going into Babylon as exiles. It was not a popular message. The false prophets said Jeremiah was crazy and couldn\u2019t be hearing rightly from God. The false prophets had a much different idea: Judah should cozy up to the Egyptians and have them provide protection against the evil Babylonians. <\/strong><\/p>\n

So who would be the modern equivalents to Babylon and Egypt? Most Christians I hear are saying Hillary is clearly the worst of the two candidates. If that were the case, wouldn\u2019t Hillary represent Babylon\/Nebuchadnezzar and Trump be Egypt? Not only do I think Wayne\u2019s example a poor one, but it seems to undercut the very point he wishes to make.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sticking with the book of Jeremiah a bit more, remember that God calls the wicked Nebuchadnezzar \u201cmy servant\u201d on three different occasions (Jer. 25:9, 27:6, 43:10). God remains in control even with the likes of Nebuchadnezzar, something that strikes me as crucial to remember this election year! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Wayne writes \u201cI am writing this article because I doubt that many \u2018I can\u2019t vote for Trump\u2019 Christians have understood what an entirely different nation would result from Hillary Clinton as president.\u201d (Emphasis mine) Using \u201cwould\u201d here was incautious. Elsewhere, Wayne modifies his comments with \u201clikely\u201d or \u201cmost likely.\u201d Wayne also mentions \u201c\u2026we can never know the future conduct of any human being with 100% certainty…\u201d It\u2019s unfortunate his piece is not consistent throughout in this regard. I don\u2019t think \u201clikely\u201d or \u201cmost likely\u201d are great, but they are certainly to be preferred over \u201cwould.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Historian, Mark Noll, likes to say that Abraham Lincoln was the best theologian during the Civil War. It is a provocative observation, but rings true when you see so many of that time assuming God was on their side. Lincoln was different. He underscored the inscrutable nature of God\u2019s providence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A personal word is in order. Wayne Grudem was the faculty adviser for both my wife and me during our time at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). Wayne was also the first reader on my thesis and a great encouragement during my two years at TEDS. My friend, Paul, sent me Wayne\u2019s piece, \u201cWhy Voting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,122,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-controversy","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6357"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8410,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357\/revisions\/8410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}